It teaches how to arrange a house so as to furnish it cheaply and harmoniously. It gives complete instructions for every room—Hall, Parlor, Library, Dining-room, Bedrooms, etc., and attends to every detail. This is a splendid guide to all who wish to make their home attractive.
Chapter fourteen teaches all about caring for House Plants. It tells the right temperature to keep them in; the proper soil for potting; how to make plants grow luxuriantly; how to have plenty of blossoms; to keep plants without a fire at night; to destroy bugs and rose-slugs; to raise plants with the least trouble; the best varieties of plants to raise, etc.
It tells how to preserve autumn leaves so that they can be bent in any form desired, and so that they will retain their color.
It tells how to prepare skeleton leaves—a very pretty amusement.
Chapter fifteen is devoted to The Laundry.
It tells: How to make washing fluid; to take out scorch; to make plain, fine, and coffee starch; to make enamel for shirt bosoms, so that any housekeeper can do them up as nicely as they do at the laundry; to clean velvets and ribbons; to take grease out of silks, woolens, paper, floors, etc.; to take out fruit stains; to take out iron rust and mildew; to wash woolen goods and blankets so that they will not shrink, etc.
The sixteenth chapter teaches how to do all kinds of Stamping.
In this chapter are given full instructions for wet and dry stamping; for making stamping powder; how to mix white paint for dark goods, and dark paint for light goods; it tells how to prepare all the necessary articles for stamping; how to prepare transfer paper; how to transfer any pattern you may see; how to make a distributor; how to enlarge designs; how to prepare all kinds of stamping powder; how to do French indelible stamping; what kind of a brush to use; and how to care for patterns. If the directions here given are followed the stamping will always be satisfactory.
Chapter seventeen teaches how to do Bronze Work.
Bronzing is the latest improvement in wax work, and if properly made cannot be detected from the most expensive, artistic bronze. It is used for table, mantel and bracket ornaments, and may be exposed to dust and air without sustaining the slightest injury. It can be dusted like any piece of furniture, and makes a very desirable, inexpensive ornament. The colors it is made in are Gold, Silver, Copper, Fire, and Green Bronze. Among the articles described are a vase in bronze, a motto in bronze, a floral basket in bronze, animals and birds in bronze, statuary in bronze, flowers and leaves in bronze.